Folio Society – SIR GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT - Simon Armitage

The New Year has just been rung in at Camelot when a terrifying stranger rides into court: a great green knight who challenges the Knights of the Round Table to a wager. One of them may strike him once with the Green Knight’s own axe, but they must allow him, a year and a day hence, to strike a return blow. Sir Gawain accepts the challenge, and bravely beheads the stranger, but to the court’s horror, the headless knight rides off, holding Gawain to his promise. Lyrical and beguiling, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight has attracted lovers of verse for centuries. The poem draws the reader into the very heart of medieval courtly society, yet this noble world is surrounded by a harsh landscape, overshadowed by the unsettling presence of the Green Knight. 

The poem is thought to date from around 1400, surviving only as a single manuscript now housed in the British Library. It is one of the best known of the Arthurian legends. The Green Knight is interpreted by some as a representation of the Green Man of folklore and by others as an allusion to Christ. Written in stanzas of alliterative verse, it draws on Welsh, Irish and English stories, as well as the French chivalric tradition.

This acclaimed verse translation by award-winning poet Simon Armitage captures all the beauty and robust vitality of the medieval original. 

‘One of the masterpieces of 14th-century art in England, and of English literature as a whole’ – J. R. R. Tolkien

DESCRIPTION: Translated by Simon Armitage. Illustrations by Diana Sudyka. Bound in cloth with gilt decoration and lettering. 128 pages; frontispiece and 13 illustrations. Book size: 13" × 93/4".

CONDITION: Book appears UNREAD and in FINE condition. However please note it has a faint musty smell from being in storage. Internally pages are clean and bright throughout. Binding is tight and square. No marks to the boards. Slipcase is STURDY with light storage wear consisting of tiny marks and a thin strip of very faint fading along the right-hand side of the mouth of the case (see photos 2, 8, 9 , 10 & 12) and faint musty smell.

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